Saya mempelajari bahasa Indonesia mulai dari huruf sampai tanda baca di perpustakaan.

Both can work, but they are a little different.

• belajar = to study / to learn
• mempelajari = to study / learn something specific

So:

• Saya belajar bahasa Indonesia = I study Indonesian.
• Saya mempelajari bahasa Indonesia = I study Indonesian, with a slightly more deliberate or formal feel.

For many learners, it helps to think of mempelajari as the version that more clearly points to a direct object: bahasa Indonesia.

It means starting from ... up to ... or from ... all the way to ....

In this sentence:

• mulai dari huruf = starting from letters
• sampai tanda baca = up to punctuation

Together, it gives the idea of covering a whole range, from the most basic elements to later details.

It is not wrong to say just dari ... sampai ..., and that is also common.

But mulai dari adds a clearer sense of beginning at a starting point. It emphasizes that the study starts with huruf.

So:

• dari huruf sampai tanda baca = from letters to punctuation
• mulai dari huruf sampai tanda baca = starting from letters and going up to punctuation

The second version feels a bit more explicit.

Indonesian often uses the basic form of a noun even when English would use a plural.

So:

• huruf can mean letter or letters
• tanda baca can mean punctuation mark or punctuation marks

The meaning is understood from context.

If the speaker wanted to emphasize plurality, they could use reduplication, such as huruf-huruf, but that is not necessary here.

Tanda baca means punctuation or punctuation marks.

Literally:

• tanda = sign / mark
• baca = reading

But as a set phrase, tanda baca simply means punctuation.

Examples include commas, periods, question marks, and so on.

Because di here is a preposition, meaning in / at.

In Indonesian:

• di as a preposition is written separately: di perpustakaan, di rumah, di sekolah
• di- as a verb prefix is written together: dibaca, ditulis, dipelajari

This is a very common point for learners.

So here:

• di perpustakaan = in / at the library

It can mean either, depending on how natural the English translation is in context.

Indonesian di is a general location marker, so it does not force the same distinction English does.

So di perpustakaan could be translated as:

• in the library
• at the library

Both are fine, depending on the situation.

Indonesian does not usually use articles the way English does.

So nouns can appear without anything equivalent to a, an, or the.

For example:

• bahasa Indonesia = Indonesian / the Indonesian language
• huruf = a letter / letters / the letters
• perpustakaan = a library / the library

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Indonesian verbs usually do not change form for tense.

So mempelajari itself does not tell you whether the action is present, past, or ongoing. Context does that.

This sentence by itself could be understood in different ways depending on context, such as:

• I study Indonesian ...
• I am studying Indonesian ...
• I studied Indonesian ...

If a speaker wants to make time clearer, they can add time words such as:

• sekarang = now
• kemarin = yesterday
• besok = tomorrow

Because Indonesia is the name of a country/language, while bahasa is a common noun meaning language.

So:

• bahasa = lowercase
• Indonesia = capitalized

This is normal in Indonesian:

• bahasa Indonesia
• bahasa Inggris
• bahasa Jepang

Only the language name itself gets the capital letter, not the word bahasa.

Yes, but the tone changes.

• saya = neutral, polite, standard
• aku = more informal and personal

So:

• Saya mempelajari bahasa Indonesia ... sounds neutral and appropriate in many situations.
• Aku mempelajari bahasa Indonesia ... sounds more casual.

A textbook sentence often uses saya because it is safer and more broadly appropriate.

The given order is natural, but Indonesian word order is somewhat flexible.

This sentence follows a common pattern:

• Saya = subject
• mempelajari = verb
• bahasa Indonesia = object
• mulai dari huruf sampai tanda baca = range/detail
• di perpustakaan = location

You could move some parts for emphasis. For example:

• Saya mempelajari bahasa Indonesia di perpustakaan.
• Di perpustakaan, saya mempelajari bahasa Indonesia mulai dari huruf sampai tanda baca.

But the original version is clear and natural.

In Indonesian, noun phrases are often built by putting the main noun first and the describing word after it.

So:

• bahasa Indonesia literally looks like language Indonesia
• natural English: Indonesian language or simply Indonesian

There is no need for a word like of here. Indonesian commonly uses this direct noun + modifier pattern.

It is literal, but it also gives a broader impression.

Literally, it means studying from:

• huruf = letters to
• tanda baca = punctuation

But it also suggests very thoroughly or from the ground up. It gives the feeling that the speaker is learning Indonesian in a detailed way, starting with the basics.